Dave Ramsey is still telling people to wait until they are 60 to buy long term care insurance. It’s embarrassing that he is saying nursing homes cost $50,000 when they really cost $75,000 and much higher in certain parts of the country like New York and parts of California. And still to be talking about just nursing homes after all these years when most people are NEVER in a nursing home. 75% of the care is at home and about 10% is in assisted living facilities. Less than 15% of care is in a nursing home. (Health Affairs, Jan 2010)

What’s really interesting to me, however, is that the report I gave him along with my new book back in March said a couple waiting til 60 would have to pay about $8000 when they could have gotten it at 50 for about $3500. And $8000 is the premium reported by the couple in their 60s in this story. If Dave could just grasp that telling people to wait until their 60s can not only price them out of the market, it can make them uninsurable so that no amount of money will buy it for them. Maybe someone could ask him “Dave, how many people do you know who have had a stroke in their 50s?” The ultimate result of what Dave Ramsey is doing by telling people to wait until age 60 to buy LTC insurance means we, the taxpayer, have to pay for more people on Medicaid because they listened to him and didn’t plan early enough. Sadly, the 60 year olds who try and fail to get LTC insurance are very likely to lose the financial peace for which they turned to him to start with because long-term care is the most common reason people outlive their savings. Feel free to use the info from my report with anyone.

Well, there’s a lot to be said for debt reduction and I can’t comment on the other products he talks about. I can only reiterate that he should make it very clear that people need to consider long-term care insurance long before age 60.

Scott says:

Whenever someone is an expert in their field, they will have issues with Dave Ramsey. Its really pathetic that his listeners don’t look beyond him for advice. He is really a debt reduction specialist that fakes being a financial expert- Selling products to people all along the way.